Art of treating ores.



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Speeifloa tion ot'Iietters Patent. I

Patented Feb. 16, 1999:

Application filed Kay 9, 1908. Serial No. 431,877.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, RoBEn'rMoKNIon'r, a

citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Pittsburg, in thecounty of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new anduseful. Improvements in the Art of Treating Ores, of which the followingis a.

specification.

My invention has reference to a treatment of ores containing thorium, inwhichI eflect the separation and recovery of the thorium I by mixing theorewith an alkaline chlorid,

preferably much in excess of the amount required to furnish chlorid forthe chloridizable constituents of the ore, and heating the resultingmixture until the alkaline chlorid and the thorium in the ore havereacted and volatile and soluble chlorids or double chlorids of thealkaline metal used and the thorium in the ore have been been-formed.

I will describe nowin detail the manner in which I practice my inventedart. Taking as a specific case an ore containing thorite and usingsodium chlorid as the alkaline chlorid, I treat it as follows: The oreis preferably reduced to a fine consistency,v

most advantageously, to about thirty (30) mesh. It is then mixed withabout double the amount of ordinary commercial sodium chlorid and fedinto the, heating furnace, which is preferably of the revolvingcylindrical type, feeding, agitating and discharging the oreautomatically; or the ore and salt may be fed separately into thefurnace and allowed to mix within it. As to the amount of salt to beused, the more used the quicker and better are the results obtained. Inpractice, however, it is found-that the advantages derived from the useof a large excess "of the salt, such as would be expected from the lawof mass action, become after a certam point counterbalanced by thedisadvantage of having to handle too large a bulk -of material; andhence the optimum maximum amount of salt to be used is bestdeterwhat isvolatilized. is condensedin a suit-.

be effected easily and well.

able condenser, such, as is described in U.- S. Patent No. 737,003,August 25, 1903, granted to me, and entitled Apparatus for condensingfumes; and the residue, preferably whilehot from the furnace, is allowedto fall into water, and thus by the sudden change of the temperaturequickly disintegrated and crumbled and the portion of the thorium whichhas not volatilized is obtained in solution, from which its'oxid or themetal itsel'f can be obtained in any suitable manner. In some cases itis found advantageous to let the ore which has passed through thefurnace pass also through a suitable pulverizer, which is preferablydoneafter the hot ore has been suddenly 'cooledby the water and thusdisintegrated and made easy to crush. In this way the complete solutionof the portion which has not volatilized is insured to I prefer also touse a limited aniountof water, which I keep in circulation by means of asuitable pump, and thus I obtain a supersaturated solution of thethorium, which on standing is precipialkaline chlorid used in thespecific case of the thorite ore described above, we may representsymbolically the principal reaction taking place as follows:

Having now described my invention what -I claim and desire'to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. The art of treating thorium ores which consists in treating the orewith an alkaline chlorid and heating the resulting mixture untilvolatile and soluble chlorids of the consists in treating the ore withan alkaline chlorid and heating-the resulting mixture until volatile andsoluble chlorids of the I thorium have been formed, condensing what isvolatilized and passing the residual ore and the thus resulting sa'ltswhile hot from the furnace into a solvent liquid, substantially asdescribed.

4. The art of treating thorium ores which consists in treating the orewith an alkaline chlorid and heating the resulting mixture untilvolatile and soluble chlorids of the thorium have been formed,condensing what is Volatilized and passing the residue while -hot fromthe furnace into water and therefrom through a suitable pulverizer,through which circulates a limited amount of the solvent for the thusresulting metallic compounds, substantially as described.

chlorid and heating the resulting mixture until volatil and solublechlorids of the thorium have been formed, condensing what isvolatilized, passing the residue while hot from the furnace into waterand thereafter through a suitable pulverizer, using the same solutionover and over again until it becomes supersaturated and deposits theless soluble thorium com )ounds, leaving the alkaline chlorid insolution, which can be used in the treatment of new ore, substantiallyas described.

In witness whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT McKNIGI-Il.

Witnesses:

W. C. SEX'ION. FRANK MCKNIGHT.

